The Abandoned Child
by Thraceaddicted
Summary: A Chapter of Kara's past comes back to haunt her, something she'd tried tried to forget. I'm not good with summaries, just r&r : !
1. Alex

_**Libra 8 years ago**_

_Dark clouds covered the sky and only now and then the clouds broke a bit and allowed small beams of light to come through. The swing in the backyard of the Moore's house was only slightly moved by the arising storm. Yellow balloons from the birthday party three days ago still hung on the swing but no child was left to be happy about their bright colour. Alexia, Thereza and Caleb Moore's eleven year old daughter had vanished without a trace only one day after her birthday and still the police had no explanation for her absence or a clue what had happened to the kid. _

_Thereza sat on a chair near the phone and waited. She hoped the police would call and tell her they had found Alex alive but deep in her heart she knew that something bad had happened to her little girl and that she wasn't going to come back yet. The young woman felt like being trapped in a nightmare and it took her a moment to focus on what was reality and what was stuck in her head when the doorbell rang. For a few seconds she hesitated and whished her husband would have been there, but he was working. Fear threaded to overwhelm her. With shaking hands she pushed herself up from the chair, afraid the police would be outside her house, telling her Alex was dead. She could almost see the bloody face of her daughter sticking out of a black body bag. _

_Thereza forced herself to calm down as she dragged the door open, already tearing up although she didn't know who exactly would be standing in front of the door. When she recognized the man that had rang the bell, she felt even more like fainting. "Dreilide," she asked, her voice sounded weary and breathless, all because of the shock she experienced by seeing him. The handsome man in the black suit in front of her just nodded, traces of sadness in his eyes as his gaze met hers. "I'm sorry to… show up before having announced my appearance, but I heard of Alexia's disappearance two days ago and I just…damn, she still is my daughter and I just wanted to know if I can do anything," he said calm and rubbed his hands. _

_Thereza felt her face blush red in anger. "You've given a damn about your daughter, Dreilide! You haven't even seen her once in 11 years, you haven't sent her even one card to her birthdays or Christmas! All you did was paying the alimony, but you've **never** been Alex father! She has a father, Caleb cares for her as if she was his daughter. You have your own family you didn't want to leave because of Alex and me, so don't dare to step into my life like that, only because she is gone. We don't need your help or your pity for frak's sake. Just leave us alone and please – don't ever come back," she yelled, trying hard not to lose control. Dreilide Thrace shrugged. "I didn't come to upset you, Thereza. I know I have made so many mistakes, I have never been a father to Alex but I just can't sit around at home when my kid is missing. My family now knows about her, she's no longer a secret but my legal daughter, so please – let me care, let me help," he begged but Thereza wouldn't listen. She just shook her head and closed the door a bit. "Thanks for coming here but Alex doesn't need you. And we don't need your help. Help me by staying away from me and Alex!" With these words she slammed the door, kneeling down on the floor and starting to sob uncontrolled. _

**Battlestar Galactica 8 years later**

Kara Thrace sat in front of a huge stack of paperwork and sighed. For nearly one week she had refused to do her paperwork and now it had absolutely gotten out of hand. "Frak it," she mumbled in anger. Paperwork just wasn't something for a Thrace!

She heard someone knock on the door and yelled: "Come in," a little bit louder than needed to vent her anger, then got up to see who came in. It was Lee Adama, smirking all over his face when he saw her room being covered in sheets of paper. "You really shouldn't wait so long to do the paperwork or it…;" he started but couldn't go on because he was hit by a pillow Kara had thrown at him. "Shut the frak up, Adama, I'm pissed enough so don't come here with that smirk to bother me! What do you want?"

Lee chuckled.

"You really should work on your anger problems, Kara! But I've come to show you something, something serious. This is a passenger list of the Rising Star I've read to locate the family of one of the pilots and I stumbled over this by chance…;" Lee said and pointed at a name he had underlined.

"What? You found a hidden Cylon or something? Give me the file, your hands are so damn shaky that I can't make out the words," Kara demanded and took the file out of Apollo's hands.

She stared at the white sheet of paper in disbelieve. "Alexia Thrace," she read out loud the underlined name and breathed. This name had hunted her throughout her whole childhood, it had ruined her life even though she had never met the person the name belonged to.

"This can't be true, Lee. Alexia died 8 years ago, this has to be a Cylon copy," Kara firmly said and handed the file back to Lee who was obviously surprised that Strabuck knew the woman on the list.

"Who is she? A relative of you? Not that I knew you had relatives at all…," he admitted and set down on a chair that could barely carry him.

He could tell that he had gotten into a bad situation by the expression on Kara's face. She just stared at the wall, her eyes were glassy as if she was far away with her thoughts. Lee was wise enough to not interrupt her in her thoughts, he just gave her a few minutes.

After a while she looked at Lee and sighed. "It's a long story but I'll make it as short as possible. My father had … some difficulties with my mother so he had several one-night stands. Alexia was the result of a funny frak with Thereza Moore. Until this girl disappeared 8 years ago my family officially didn't know about her because my father had kept his daughter a secret but when she vanished without a trace he told my mother. I had know about he for a long time…had found a letter from Thereza in which she had told him about his daughter's existence. My whole childhood I feared my mother would find the letter because he would have kicked him out. Well…she finally did and so I was alone with her, she could do whatever she wanted to me! You have no idea how much I hated this girl, Lee. But nevertheless it can't be her, it has to be a Cylon because she was pronounced to be dead 6 moth after her disappearance," Kara hesitatingly told him, her voice sounded throaty and it seemed to be tough for her to tell him something about her past, especially something of that importance.


	2. Rising Star

* * *

Now it was his turn to sigh. "Are you sure she died? I mean, did somebody find her corps? If not, there would be a slight possibility that she actually is _not _a Cylon and that would be nice…wouldn't it? She somehow is your sister...," Lee said carefully, not sure how Starbuck would react. 

"Lee, she's just a frakking girl that accidentally has the same frakking father like me! Biologically she may be my sister but I'm a lone runner, I don't need siblings, thanks! And no – they never found her, they just didn't expect to get her back alive after 6 months so there might be a possibility that she really is a human girl but actually I don't care," she said snappy and started to collect the papers from the floor.

Lee just nodded.

"I'll tell the president, she has to decide whether we should run a blood test on that girl or not. If there is a possibility that Alexia is a Cylon, we have to check it."

"Whatever!" Kara didn't even listen anymore, at least it seemed so. Lee knew just quite well that it was time to leave her now or the situation would lead to a confrontation.

"Hope you'll get over your paperwork," he threw in as he walked towards the door but didn't get an answer so he left her quarter without another word.

* * *

By the time the soldiers marched across the floor, Alex could tell they had come to get her. From the very beginning she had had these special feeling that told her when something just wasn't right. Now the feeling told her to run and hide but she could feel her little sister Lilith grab her arm in fear so there was no way for her to escape. She couldn't leave the child. The soldiers were followed by a woman with red hair, better known as president Laura Roslin.

"Excuse my appearance ," the President spoke to the people that stared at her. Still, after some months, the survivors on the Rising Star were still living in one great hall on the ship, without beds, without privacy but yet they weren't unhappy or hopeless because of their poor life. They strongly believed in the gods and in their President that they would find earth where everything would be better for them

"Is a woman called Alexis Thrace present," Roslin asked and waited. A murmur went through the hall, people whispered, looked around them, some afraid, some exited. Alex just felt like a statue, her heart beat like hell and it was hard for her to breathe slowly but the little girl next to her made her keep her cool. She took a deep breath, then stood up slowly and walked past the other people towards the soldiers and the President, Lilith's hand wrapped in hers.

"I'm Alexia Thrace," she said, tightening her body so nobody could think she was afraid. She had no idea why the President wanted to see her but she didn't want to give the expression of being sorry without even being accused for something.

Laura Roslin really was surprised when she faced the two girls. Alexia couldn't be older than 18 and the child that stood next to her was maybe 4 or 5 years old. She had expected a grown up, a woman of at least 20 years and it shocked her a bit that a possible Cylon was not yet an adult. She could already tell that in case this girl was a Cylon, it would be a tough time for her to decide what to do with her.

"I'm President Roslin," she finally said and offered her hand to the girl, but Alexia refused to take it. "Please, follow me."

The soldiers led them out of the big hall so no one could overhear the upcoming conversation. After having closed the doors, the Marines left the President and the two girls alone.

"What have I done," asked Alexia before the President was even able to make an attempt to explain her coming.

"Nothing. I just want you to follow me to the Battlestar Galactica where we will run a blood test on your. Let me explain…as you maybe know, there are still hidden Cylons on the fleet we haven't discovered yet. Some of them are sleepers that don't even know they are Cylons, some of them just wait until they get further instructions. We _know _that you disappeared 8 years ago, Alexia, because you half sister identified you and she also told us that you were pronounced dead 6 months after you went missing. It is absolutely necessary for us to test whether you are a Cylon or not and it can only be done on the Galactica," Laura explained and hoped the girl wouldn't freak out.

Alex just stared at her for a moment as if she was replaying the President's words in her mind to get the full meaning of them, then she just nodded. "Alright, then take me to your ship. But Lilith has to come with me, she has no one but me."

"I think this will be no problem. Follow me to the flight deck, please."

Silent, they walked to the flight deck, only Lilith suddenly started to cry and stopped. "What are they going to do, Ally," she whispered between sobs, after Alex had knelt down beside her. She gently stroked the little girl's hair and kissed her cheek.

"Nothing bad baby! They just take a blood sample and test something, that's it. They're not going to hurt me," Alex explained and lifted Lilith up from the ground. The girl wrapped her slim arms around Alex' neck and went on questioning her older sister.

"What is a Cylon, Ally?"

"Cylons are…they," Alex started but was unsure how to explain it to the little girl without scaring her. Laura Roslin helped her out .

"Have you ever had a friend that was really friendly to you but from one day to another she just was unfriendly to you without a reason?"

Lilith nodded. "My best friend Amarice at home started to talk behind my back in the kindergarten when we still were at home," she told Roslin.

The President smiled. "Well, the Cylons are not that much different from your friend Amarice. They pretend to be friendly with us but suddenly they change and do bad things – like talking behind our backs!"

The girl thought for a short time, then said: "Then you gotta be wrong, my sister can't be a Cylon, she's absolutely nice to everybody…even to Amarice!" Alexia couldn't help but smiled. Lilith had become the most important person in her life after the holocaust because she was the reason why Alex had to wake up every morning and she loved Alex without any conditions.

On the flight deck they climbed into a Raptor that soon was sent into space. "It won't take longer than 15 minutes to get to the Galactica," one of the pilots told them, then turned back to his navigation console.

"Are we going to see mommy and daddy on that ship, Ally," Lilith asked with glowing cheeks and sparkling eyes after a few minutes of silence between the passengers. "No," Alex firmly answered, not in the mood to explain the whole death thing to the girl again. For some reasons, Lilith took a 'no' as a no today and didn't ask further questions.

Roslin sighed. It was hard for her to see children go through the consequences of the holocaust that had affected all their lives in such a bad way. But especially the children couldn't really understand what had happened and they obviously still couldn't believe that their mommys and daddys would never come back, that their homes were gone and that they could be dead any minute now in case a frakking Cylon hidden on their ship would just blows itself off and with it the whole ship. They had no idea what gift it was to be able to wake up in the morning…well, at least she thought it was a gift, wasn't it?

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I hope you liked it a bit! Let me know if you want more ! 

Thx for the reviews !


	3. Blood samples and Lab Nerds

The Raptor landed softly on the flight deck of the Galactica. Lee already waited to guide the guests to Baltar's lab. From a distance, he could see Kara fumbling around on her Viper and as Roslin climbed out of the Raptor with the Marines and two girls, he could see her looking the older girl up and down, then shaking her head and turning away.

He stepped towards Roslin and greeted her friendly. "I'm Lee Adama, CAG of the Galactica. I'll lead you to the lab where Dr. Baltar will take a blood sample of you, Miss Thrace," Lee then said briefly and signed them to follow him.

"Who's that man, Ally," Lilith immediately asked when Lee had turned his back to them. "He's the CAG of the Galactica, you heard that, Lilith! And now, be quiet," Alex told her, a little bit harsh and tightened her grip so she would stop asking questions. But unfortunately the little girl didn't get her sister's warning and went on very happily. "Do you know him? And what is a CAG?" Alex rolled her eyes. She was getting really pissed off and all she wished was to be back at the Rising Star in a quiet corner, with some pieces of paper and a pen to write down some poems, something she had done for ages now to relax.

When she refused to answer, Lilith just freed herself from Alex' grasp and ran forward to Lee. For a second she hesitated, and then twitched his uniform so he would look down at her. Lee seemed to be slightly amused as he stopped and knelt down in front of Lilith to be on her eye level. "What is a CAG, Mister," Lilith asked seriously and frowned. Lee couldn't help but smiled. "Well a CAG is the boss of all the pilots on a ship," he explained and got up again. The girl nodded. "Alright then. We can trust him, he's a big shot on the ship," the child stated after having grabbed Alex hand again. Lee and Roslin chuckled and even Alex grinned a bit.

"We're here," Lee suddenly announced and stopped in front of heavy metal door. He opened and let the President, Alex and Lilith enter the lab. Baltar got up from a chair when he saw his guests and greeted them with his usual arrogance and smugness. "Mrs. President, it's a pleasure for me to meet you again; you look absolutely beautiful, as usual. And this has to be Ms. Thrace – well, you really have nothing in common with our Starbuck, you're a pretty lady," he purred and dragged Alex over to a chair and made her sit down.

"Who the frak is Starbuck? And why should I have something in common with her," Alex asked and raised an eye brow. "Oh she's my Flight Instructor…you'll meet her soon, she's …well…We'll explain everything to you later," Lee hastily answered before Baltar could react and make things worse.

"Mr. Baltar, please take a blood sample of Alex…well, of both of the girls and run the test. We'll wait outside until you are finished," Laura Roslin told Gaius and left the lab together with Lee. She looked encouraging at Lilith, who seemed to be a little afraid considering the fact of being forced to give a blood sample, and then closed the door behind her.

"Did you know that she is just a girl of maybe 19 years," Roslin asked outside and watched Lee shook his head. "No, Kara just told me she had vanished 8 years ago, she never told me how old Alexia had been by that time. You have to know that Kara…she's not very happy about her sudden appearance. The girl unwittingly changed Kara's life in a not so good way because her father – and Alex' father – was kicked out by Kara's mom after she got to know he had a daughter with another woman," Lee explained and sighed. This was going to get very difficult, he could feel that.

"Why did you test the girl," he asked after a few seconds of silence and looked at Roslin. "Well…she calls Lilith her sister, I just wanted to know whether this girl is her biological sister or not because this would mean she has returned home some when," Laura stated and leaned back against the cold metal wall. She was exhausted from a day full of work and her journey to the Rising Star, she had a head ache and her legs felt like lead.

After some minutes, Alex came out of the room, obviously angry. "Don't let me ever again alone with that frakking lab-nerd! Gods…he's so convinced of himself that he's actually talking to himself when he thinks no one is listening! Maybe all other persons in the universe are not worth it to talk to him," Alex bitched about Baltar. Roslin stared at the floor so she wouldn't laugh.

"Where's your sister…Lilith, right?" Lee asked and ignored her murmuring. "Well, she fainted – she always does when she sees blood, not a big deal, I'm used to that! She cuts her finger, she just falls unconscious! Absolutely a wimp that girl," Alex gave back and scratched her arm where the needle had stitched her flesh. "Just let her lie there for a few moments, she'll be fine," she added and turned to Roslin. "The Nerd said, it'll take some hours until he has the results. Now please, don't tell me I have to stay here because you think I'm a frakking Cylon! Because I'm not, I'm not old enough! Look at the other models; they're 10 years older than me or even more!"

Roslin shrugged. Alex knew about the other models. "How do you know the other models are older," she questioned calmly and took a deep breath. "Dear Mrs. President, we're not as dump as you may think. We know more about Cylons than you think, although we're just some unimportant survivors on a passenger ship. One of us hacked into the data base of another ship, I dunno which one, and found the files of the Cylon that was on the Galactica. We had one on our ship, just threw it out of the airlock after we read that," the girl told her.

"Out of the airlock? Why didn't I know about that?" Roslin was getting very horrified about what was going on in the fleet. "It was self-administered justice, not even the ship crew knew about it until they saw the activation of the airlock. We are sick of asking for the permission to save our lives, we just do it!"

Lee sighed. Somehow he had the feeling that with Alex they had gained much more than they had bargained for. "Starbuck Number two on board," he sighed and shook his head. This was going to become nasty when his Kara would meet her 'sister'! Someone should watch that they didn't scratch each other's eyes out!


	4. The stolen child

_Gemenon 3 years ago_

_Alex sat on her bed and got dressed when she heard the door downstairs. "We're back again," she could hear Callisto, her 'mother' call downstairs. She got up and ran down the stairs into the hall, where Callisto and Ben were waiting for their kids. Nathan, Alex 'brother' shuffled out of his room and seemed to be still half asleep._

_"Look what we got," Callisto said proudly and pointed at a sleeping little girl in Ben arms. Alex felt her heart beat harder and harder in her chest. They had done it again…"We found her on Caprica, isn't she beautiful, Alex? She's just two years old yet she's so pretty. She reminds me so much of you Ally, look – the same brown curls! And she has the same blue eyes like you when she's awake," Callisto went on and ignored the looks Nathan and Alex exchanged._

_"You found her," asked Nathan sharply and looked the sleeping bundle up and down. "Like you found us?" Ben nodded. "Yes, like we found you and now stop asking these stupid questions and get dressed, school starts in one hour and you're already late!" His voice was threatingly calm and Nathan knew it was the best to stop now. He went back into his room, followed by Alex, who closed the door behind them. She knew they could talk now because Callisto and Ben were busy with the new kid._

_"They have done it again, Nat! We have to make them stop; we have to somehow get home! I'm sick of it, look at the girl. She's not even two years old; she won't remember her parents anymore in a few weeks. We have to tell someone, tell the police or…frak it, I just wanna go home, Nat. Don't you wanna go home?"_

_Nat, who had went through his closet to find socks, turned around to her, his eyes filled with tears. "You know they don't leave us alone. We have no chance to tell someone and no one would believe us, Ally! On Gemenon we are their legal kids and no one can stop them. No one on this goddamned planet knows they stole us from other planets of the colonies. And…I'm not sure if I wanna go home…I was so young when they took me, I don't really remember my family…," he gave back and wiped his tears away._

_"But I was 11 years old, I remember everything, I miss my mom and dad! Five years, Nat, for nearly five years I'm here now, do you have any ideas what our parents must think? What they're going through? We're officially dead!" Alex was very angry now, all the emotions she had kept for so long now were overwhelming her. For nearly 5 years she had pretended to have forgotten her parents, to be happy about the life she led but she wasn't. For 5 years she was making plans how to escape and now was the time to test them._

**

* * *

Battlestar Galactica **

Kara beat the crap out of the punching bag in front of her. She was angry, no actually she was absolutely pissed. Pissed about her frakking father, about the appearance of this frakking girl that was her biological half sister and about Lee who was so frakking nice to that kid. This kid had turned her world upside down once and now it was starting all again.

"Hey Starbuck…," she heard a voice from the doorway but didn't turn around. "What do you want, Lee," she gasped and hit the bag even harder, so hard, her hands started to hurt like hell.

"First of all, I want you to stop and look at me. I know you Kara. When you hit the bag like that, something is bothering you and I figure it has something to do with Alex," Lee said and stepped further into the room.

"So you're already calling her Alex? The only thing that's bothering me is YOU Lee sticking around all the time, trying to fix me. I'm fine, I get along with her being on the Galactica as long as you keep her away from me," Kara hissed and stopped the swinging punching bag to peel off the black bandages from her hands. Underneath her knuckles were bloody and she bit her lips because the material burned in the wounds.

Lee shook his head. Sometimes he felt like talking to a wall when he talked to Kara. "Well, we'll have the results in one hour, to you want me to show them to you? Or do you really don't care?"

"Yeah well finally you got it Lee, I DON'T CARE! If she's a Cylon, throw her out of the airlock, if not, kick her out and take her back to the Rising Star. Opposite to you Adama men I'm not a family guy maybe because I never really had one and I'm not playing happy little family reunion now!"

With that, she stormed out of the room, leaving a defeated Lee behind. She jogged through the corridors of the Galactica to cool down a bit but when she ran around a corner, she suddenly banged into someone.

"Ooh sorry," she heard someone mumble and looked up to see Alex standing in front of her, holding her hand out to help Starbuck get up. "I was jogging around the corner and didn't see you Ma'am, I'm sorry," she repeated, this time louder.

Puzzled, Kara actually grabbed the girls hand and stood up. "Never mind," she answered and stared at her. Alex seemed to be puzzled too and looked back at Kara with one eyebrow raised. For some time they just stood there and stared at each other, then they both said at the same time: "Well…I…"

Alex stopped to let Kara finish her sentence. "I have to go now. Try to not run into another person," she said and ran past Alex.

The girl had no time to answer but she remained where she stood for a few seconds. When they had stared at each other, there had been something in the woman's eyes, something she recognized. The same eye colour, the same stubborn look but also – deep inside – the same pain. Alex finally shrugged and went on walking. 'You're seeing ghosts, she's a stranger,' she told herself and made her way to Baltar's lab to pick up Lillith.

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Thank you sooooo much for your feedback and all the kind reviews! Sorry for spelling mistakes, I'm from Germany so I sometimes...well I sometimes frak things up :) please forgive me! Hope you liked the chapter, reviews are appriciated! Have a nice day 


	5. Confrontation

Thx a lot for the reviews. As you wished ;) a longer chapter this time! Not that much longer, but at least a bit lol!

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"Gaius, wake up!" A well known voice pulled him out of his dreams and Baltar realized he had fallen asleep with his head on the desk, in front of his computer. He could feel Six knead his shoulders and sighed in pleasure. This really sweetened dry desk work. "Well, well…it's always a pleasure to wake up like that, my beauty," he said and stroked Six' hand.

"My beauty? What the frak are you talking about, Baltar? Hello, it's me, Alex, not your _beauty_! See, he's doing it again," he heard someone say and startled. In front of his desk he could see President Roslin, Captain Adama and the two girls he had tested.

"Dr. Baltar, we're sorry to wake you up but you told us that you would have the results by now," Roslin said and ignored the fact that he had been talking to himself again and Alex teasing words.

"Results? Aah yeah, right, the results," he mumbled a little bit confused and looked at the screen of his computer. Indeed, the test had finished half an hour ago and the results were very satisfying. "I can clearly say these girls are no Cylons," he stated and smiled at both of them.

Alex just rolled her eyes and snapped: "I already told you that!"

"And the other thing I asked you to test, Dr. Baltar," the President asked and came a few steps further into his direction. "There's a possibility of 0,0 that they are biological siblings. Maybe the family adopted Lillith," he answered and shrugged. He had absolutely no idea why this was so important for Roslin. Still, the President wasn't satisfied enough. "No, there has to be more to that. I want you to look for children missing in the past… let me say, past 4 years. Look out for kids that would match to Lillith but please, act discreet. Especially the girls shouldn't know about that," she ordered.

He nodded and his gaze slid over to Six who sat on a chair in a corner of his lab. "Well Gaius, looks like work isn't over yet," she said and got up. She walked past the others and looked them up and down, then stopped next to Gaius. "Believe me, I'll make it a pleasure for you," she whispered into his ear and a wide grin spread across Baltar's face.

"Look at him, he's mad," Alex told Lee and shook his head. Lee raised one eyebrow and had to admit that Baltar was acting strange again but on the other hand, he'd never acted differently. "Sometimes fame messes up with your head," he gave back and smirked.

"Well, thank you very much for your work Doctor. We'll leave you alone now," Roslin told Baltar and left the lab, followed by the others. Outside the lab Alex asked: "Can you please take us back to the Rising Star now?"

"No, I want to stay here, Ally. They have beds here," Lillith told her sister excitedly but Alex shook her head. "This is a Battlestar, Lilly, we don't belong here. We have to go back!"

"Well, what about we have dinner here on the Galactica and take you back tomorrow? You can have one of our free guest quarters," Lee proposed, having Kara back in his mind. He wanted her to meet Alex, to get over a chapter of her past that haunted her till today. He wasn't even actually sure if Kara really hated Alex.

The girl sighed. "Alright, but I wanna go back tomorrow morning! Now, let's have dinner, I'm starving!" Lillith jumped in excitement and grabbed Lee's hand. The young man as pretty surprised that the little girl liked him because usually he hadn't a good hand with children, they somehow were always afraid of him.

"That's so great. I've never eaten on a Battlestar, what do you people eat here? We eat the same things over and over again on the Rising Star. Ally says it's because the cook isn't too good and he can't cook many different meals. But I don't believe that because he baked a cake for my birthday! Bad cooks can't bake I guess and the cake was really yummy. One man said it was because the fleet has rationed the food but I don't really know what this means. All in one I like your ship better than ours because we have no beds or quarters, just a big hall where we all use to sleep," Lilly babbled happily and she recently stopped when they entered the mess.

Kara immediately saw them enter. "Damnit," she mumbled and hit her fist on the table. "What," asked Helo and looked over his shoulder to see the entrance. "Is this Alex?" Kara nodded. She had given him the same short version of her past she had given Lee and he had been as surprised as her flyboy. But unfortunately the Adama men never took a no as a no and it pissed her off that Lee had taken the girls to the mess with him.

"Please, Kara – just ignore them. I bet this girl doesn't even know that your dad has frakked around with her mother and it wasn't her fault. If you wanna blame someone, blame her mother, not Alexia," Helo tried to appease his friend but it seemed to even increase her fury.

"Helo, are you that frakking dumb? Her name is Alexia _THRACE _so I bet she knows that Caleb MOORE wasn't her real father. But you're right, it wasn't her fault her mother was a bitch but sometimes this runs in the family," she snapped and stood up from her chair. She walked over to Lee, ignored that he was talking to Laura Roslin and dragged him out of the mess.

"What do you think you're doing Lee? Taking this _girl _into the mess won't help me, alright. I asked you to keep her away from me because I really don't WANNA SEE HER," Kara yelled and pushed Lee against a wall. He took a deep breath and expected Kara's fist to meet his face but luckily she didn't hit him. Her grip around his shoulders loosened a bit and she stepped away from him. "I'm sorry," she admitted. "It's just…I was nearly happy to lose the rest of my family to the assaults on the colonies because this saved me from a lot of trouble to come in case my father would somehow appear again or my mother would find me. Now _she _comes up and causes trouble so I'm not in the mood to befriend with her!"

Lee shook his head and sighed. "The only one who causes trouble right now, is you! Alexia is a nice girl even if her slightly cold attitude is really familiar to me. Someone called Starbuck once was like that when I first met her," he stated and smiled a bit to lighten the mood but unfortunately Kara wasn't really willing to see things less complicated and negative.

"So, is she a frakking Cylon or not," she asked, still grumpy and crossed her arms in front of her chest when someone behind her answered her question. "No, I'm _not _a _frakking _Cylon. Captain, the President has a meeting with the Commander now, are we allowed to get something to eat without you?" Kara turned around and saw Alexia standing behind her, the girl's eyes ranged between hurt and anger. Starbuck suddenly felt guilty. In fact, Lee was right, the girl truly had nothing to do with the mistakes her parents did and she had obviously suffered enough in her relatively short life.

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**_Caprica 8 years ago _**

_Kara sat on the porch when her father dragged his suitcases out of the house. Well, she was 19, she had nothing to fear. Even now her father left and she was left behind with no one to protect her from her abusive mother, she still could protect herself. Only 3 more moths to go and she would attend Military School, far, far away from 'home'. "By Dad," she just said and watched him pack the things into his car. He opened the door of the car, hesitated and went back to her. "You know, Kara, I would have taken you with me but this would have been too hard for your mother. Just be strong Baby, I'll miss you!" Dreilide kissed his daughters forehead and went away. "You know where you can find me," he shouted out of the window of his car when he drove away and waved Kara goodbye. The young woman sat there for a while and stared at the street. She was so angry about her father's behaviour! Sure, her mother wasn't easy to handle and her parents had had a lot of difficulties lately but still she couldn't understand why he had cheated on her._

_Kara sighed and looked around when her gaze met a bottle of milk that stood on the porch. The photo of a little girl was printed on the bottle with the important information that a girl named Alexia Thrace was missing on Libra. Anger arose in her so she grabbed the bottle and threw it against the wall of her house. The glass smashed into a million of pieces that sparkled in the sunlight like diamonds. She hated her father, she hated her half sister and she hated her mother. In this moment, she swore two things to herself : First of all she never wanted to really fall in love with someone because in the past years the love to other humans had caused nothing but pain and disappointment to her. Secondly she swore that she would never talk to her father again and she knew that at least this promise she would keep !_

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I hope you liked it a bit, reviews would be awesome ! Have a nice day _


	6. Mysteries

It was in the middle of the night, when Lee woke up because it had knocked on his door. He yawned and rubbed his eyes. It was 3 o'clock in the morning and he really wanted to sleep so the person that disturbed him better had a good excuse. Sighing he turned the light on and for a moment his tired eyes burned from the sudden brightness in his room. Labored he swung his legs over his bedside and slid into his shoes, grabbed a shirt that hung over a chair next to his bed and pulled it over his head.

Lee shuffled to the door and opened it. Alex stood in front of it, her eyes red as if she had cried, bare-footed but fully dressed. "Captain, I'm sorry to wake you up in the middle of the night but…I don't know anyone else here. Please, can you tell me where I can find a doctor on the ship," the girl hastily said, panic resonated in her voice.

"What's the matter," Lee asked and pulled Alex inside his quarter so she would stand on the cold metal floor any longer. "Are you sick?"

Alex shook her head. "Not me, Sir, but Lilli! She woke me up two hours ago because she felt so hot. I'm not a doctor but I can tell that she really felt as if she had a high fever! I first thought she was just getting the flue or something, but her condition worsened. She suddenly was in great pain and couldn't really describe where it hurt and the some minutes ago she threw up and afterwards coughed blood! I'm so afraid, Captain, I don't know what's wrong with her!" Some tears escaped from Alex eyes and she wiped them away immediately so Lee wouldn't see her weakness.

"Here, take these," Lee said and handed her a pair of socks. "Don't want you to fall sick too! Where is Lillith now?"

"In our guest quarter."

"Alright. Don't worry, it'll be ok, we'll take her to Dr. Cottle," Lee tried to soothe her but somehow it wasn't really working. He realized that her whole body was shaking when she put his socks on and nearly fell to the floor because her knees buckled under her weight.

They left the quarter in a hurry and nearly ran to the guest quarters. "How did you find my quarter," Lee asked on the way to drag Alex thoughts away from what might happen to Lilli. "I asked a Marine where I could find you. Sure, I could have asked him where I can find a doctor but… I was too shocked, I didn't want to go alone," Alex admitted and stopped him in front of their guest quarter.

She lead him into the bedroom of the little apartment. Lilli lay on the couch, her little body covered in sweat, still some blood on her glowing cheeks. Her chest was moved irregularly as if she was slowly suffocating and her little fists had dug deeply into the cushion of the sofa. She didn't woke up and Lee figured that was not a good sign.

"Ok..I carry her," Lee stated and picked the little girl up, carefully so she wouldn't wake or feel uncomfortable. He could feel the head of her little body when he touched her bare arms but nevertheless he ordered Alex to cover the girl with a rug. "Ok, let's go. The sickbay isn't far away from here!" Alex nodded and followed Lee.

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Dr. Cottle hated to be woken up in the middle of the night because of emergencies that later turned out to be no emergencies. When Lee Adama and an unknown girl entered the lab he was obviously annoyed by the late disturbance but the little girl the Captain was carrying really looked ill.

"Cottle, please check the girl, she's burning and has coughed blood earlier," Lee said with gritted teeth and placed the girl on a bed. The Doctor sighed and looked the girl up and down. "When did it start," he asked grumpily and took a cigar out of the pocket of his smock.

"Two hours ago with fever but it worsened pretty fast," Alex whispered and stared at Lilli who had started to moan in her sleep.

"Alright then, get out of here while I check her. Wait outside, I'll come to you when I have the results," Cottle demanded and pushed Alex and Lee out of the sickbay although Alex refused to leave Lilli's side. Outside Lee made her sit down on a chair and said: "Wait here for a few minutes, I have to find a replacement for my CAP in one hour. I'll be back soon and don't worry – Cottle may look like a butcher but he's a good doctor, he'll help Lilli!" Alex nodded silently and watched Lee ran through the corridor.

She was tired but yet her body was filled with so much adrenalin that she couldn't sleep or think of anything else but Lilli. She couldn't tell he doctor but this wasn't the first time she had seen this kind of symptoms and that even increased her fear. Nathan had died after only six hours and it had began like this, fever, bloody coughs and later – like the ambulance men had told them – organ failure. And now Lilli was dying and she knew the doctor couldn't help her because in Nat's case the pathologist who had performed the autopsy on his body had no idea what exactly had caused this symptoms and his death.

Her thoughts drifted to the day it happened just 14 months ago…

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_Alex came home from school and kicked her bag into a corner of the hall. She expected no one to be at home but when she entered the living room to watch some TV, she saw Nathan lying on the couch, covered in blood and sweat. Her heart started to race when she saw this horrible scene and she lingered in the doorway for a few seconds, unable to move. "Nat?", she whispered and finally made her way to the sofa, keeling down beside him. The boy's eyes fluttered open when he heard her voice and he tried to smile bravely but his body was shaken when a spasm of coughing waved over him. He breathed stertorously as if his throat was filled with liquid and Alex couldn't do anything else but sitting helplessly next to him, absolutely stunned and desperate. "Nathan, what's wrong with you? Where are Cally and Ben? I call the ambulance immediately," she whispered and jumped up from the ground, her whole body shaky when she ran into the hall to reach the phone._

_She nearly screamed in the phone and begged the ambulance to come as soon as possible because she didn't want to be alone with Nat anymore, it was too much for her. "Alex," she heard Nathan's whimpering and went back to his side. "I'm here, everything's going to be ok, Nat;" she said and tried to sound calm and secure so he wouldn't realize how scared she was. Softly she stroked his sweaty hair to soothe him and held his hand. _

_"__I remember them now, Alex," the boy suddenly said and a small smile escaped from his lips. "I remember my mommy and daddy although I thought I had forgotten about them but now I can see them absolutely clear." His voice wasn't more than a breath and his weakness scared the hell out of Alex. "Tell me about them Nat, describe what they look like," she ordered to keep him awake and speaking. Although a million thoughts spinned around in her mind she knew it was important that he didn't fall asleep._

_"__I can't, I'm too tired. I'll tell you about them later," he gave back and grabbed her other hand that had rested on his hot forehead. "Am I dying?"_

_Alex shrugged when he said that and felt her heart race in her chest again. "No, of course not. You're just a little ill but everything will be ok," she answered and kissed his cheek. "My mom was beautiful with blond curls and blue eyes just like me. My father was as tall as Ben, well trained and always funny. My mommy was the nicest person on earth, she always made me laugh and was there for me…,"Nat breathed and tears streamed down his cheeks. "I wished they would be here now, I feel so cold Alex," he cried and shivered. Alex didn't hesitate and lifted him up a bit to give him a hug. _

_For some moments they remained like that when Alex suddenly couldn't feel the movement of his chest anymore. In shock he let him sink back on the couch and then took his shoulders and shook him. "Nat," she screamed hysterically but the boy didn't move, he was not breathing and his heart didn't beat anymore. _

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Kara looked at Lee in disbelieve as he explained to her what had happened. Some minutes ago he had woken her up in the pilot's quarters and had asked her to take his CAP because Lilli had fallen seriously sick and he didn't want to leave Alex alone. Although no one had told Kara she figured that Lilli was the little girl that had come to the Galactica with Alexia. Kara convinced Hot Dog to take Lee's CAP so she could go to the sickbay with him because she really wanted to know what was going on.

They found Alex in front of the sickbay, still waiting and obviously lost in thoughts. "Hey, I'm back. This is Lt. Kara Thrace," Lee said and sat down next to her on a chair while Kara just stood in front of them. "Kara Thrace," Alex asked and looked a bit confused. "I've never met someone before with the same last name than me," she admitted and for some moments she forgot about Lilli and wondered if she was somehow related to that woman.

"Yeah well, we already met two times. And I have the same last name like you because," Kara started but was cut off when Cottle came out of the sickbay and closed the door behind him. He sighed before he started and Alex knew he would now tell them that Lilli was going to die.

"Well…the diagnosis is not too good. Right now I have no real explanation for the condition she is in, we have to wait until I have the results of her blood tests. Fact is that her organs are shutting down one by one. At the moment, her lungs collapse, then her kidneys, her liver and – in case she survives until then – her heart will just stop beating. We give her some drugs that should stabilize her until we have the results, a machine keeps her lungs from collapsing and helps her to breathe so her body is filled with enough oxygen. Unfortunately we can't do more at the moment, we just have to wait," Cottle told them and light a cigar.

"But when you don't find a cure as fast as possible she's going to die, right," Alex asked and wasn't surprised when Cottle nodded. "Yes we have to find a cure pretty fast because she won't make it much longer. Pray to the gods that she stays alive till we have the results and in the meantime just be with her. She's unconscious but I bet she feels when you are with her!"

Alex got up from the chair and entered the sickbay, Lee and Kara behind her. Slowly, she sat down on a chair next to Lilli's hand and took her small hand in hers. It was hot and sweaty but she loved her soft baby skin. Although she was already 5 years old she still was a little lumpy like babies before they can walk but Alex loved that especially when she had swung her little fat arms around Alex's neck to cuddle.

Now she lay there, her little body drained from the fever, her brown curls spread across the pillow and her pale little face nearly totally covered with a breathing mask. Alex stroked Lilli's hand and a tear fell down her chin onto the white blanket. There was nothing she could do, nothing to help Lilli. All she could do was to wait for the results.

She hated waiting.

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Hey, hope you liked it! Reviews and critic would be more than appretiated so plleeeeaaaaseeeeee review ;) 


	7. The past takes its tolls

Kara and Lee waited outside the sickbay because Cottle had asked to talk to Alex, alone, about Lillith's condition.

"Why is this taking that frakking long? Cottle's not a man of many words, I can't believe we've already wasted 57 minutes outside here," Kara sighed and sat down on a chair next to Lee after having paced around like a caged feral cat.

"Before you mentioned the part with the wasted 57 minutes people could have guessed that you actually care," Lee mentioned and chuckled when Kara gave him a back- head – slap.

"Well," she admitted. "I actually do care. Lillith's just…damn she's just a frakking little girl, she can't just die like that! It all went so fast, she seemed to be pretty healthy in the evening when I met you guys in the mess…"

Lee nodded and frowned. This was absolutely a mystery to him. How could a strong, healthy little girl like Lilli fall this seriously ill in such a short time? He remembered her babbling all the way to the mess, her laughter when she talked about the cook on the Rising Star and her curious look when she saw the mess. This all seemed to weird to him and he had to admit that he liked the girls very much.

Suddenly the door opened and Cottle came out, his head held down and each step he took seemed to be hard for him to walk.

Kara had known Cottle for a long time now and she was absolutely sure that she had never seen him like that before, he had never been that…depressed. She knew that he had no good news for them and Kara felt her heart drop a little.

Cottle didn't immediately talk to them, he first sighed heavily, then sad down too on the chair Kara had occupied before but she had jumped up when the door had opened.

"Lillith died 15 minutes ago, we were to late," he told them, his voice somehow throaty but as calm as always. "I gave Alex a few minutes with her before I left them to talk to you. Give the girl some space, she's absolutely defeated and stunned."

So were Kara and Lee. They had expected Cottle to tell them that it was serious, that Lillith had a little chance to survive, but that she was actually already dead hit both of them hard.

"Why," asked Lee when he found the strength to speak and added: "I mean, what caused her death? It all happened…so fast!"

Cottle frowned. "Yeah well…it's little difficult to explain but I'll make it as short as possible. Lillith had Cylon DNA in her system. She wasn't a Cylon, she was more of a Hybrid but I can tell that someone implanted the Cylon DNA into her system. The short version of what happened to her, is, that both sides, the Cylon side and the human, fought against each other on a molecular base and this cause major organ malfunction. This whole process is much more complex but you wouldn't understand the details. In fact, we have to find out if Alex carries this Cylon DNA in her system too because in her case we could save her with organ transplantation and –in case we find a donor- we could neutralise the Cylon part with donated bone mark. This all unfortunately was too late for Lillith, we had no time to transplant organs and her system was already too damaged."

Kara and Lee looked at him in disbelieve. Lillith an Alex were Hybrids? "Baltar tested the girls and he couldn't find anything in her system, how could you see it in Lilli's blood," Kara asked and raised an eyebrow.

"This is another part of the process, it affects their blood. I'm sure Baltar couldn't see her Cylon side because it was too small but when it started decomposing her organs, it became visible. I'm not actually….sure if what I've seen really is cylonic but I have no other definitio for it because what has killed her is definitively not human," Cottle explained and ran on hand through his grey hair.

Kara breathed out loudly and shook her head. "So you don't even know exactly that it was Cylon DNA?"

Cottle shook his head. "Nope, I'm not but I passed the blood sample I have taken minutes before she died to Baltar. He'll analyse it."

Lee got up and said: "I'll go and look for Alex now."

"I come with you," Kara stated and added when she saw Lee's doubtful expression: "Don't worry, I'll be absolutely friendly and I won't mention the family thing!"

Lee grinned and took her hand in his when hey entered the sickbay without Cottle who had stayed outside.

Alex sat next to Lilli's bed and held the little girl's hand. All tubes hand been removed from her tiny body so she now looked like she was asleep, totally peaceful. When Alex saw them enter, she jumped up from the chair and ran to Lee. Sobbing, she wrapped his arms around him and pressed her body so hard against his that he could feel her tremble.

He hadn't thought she would react like that but nevertheless he stoked her hair and tried to soothe her somehow, although he knew this was somehow impossible now. She just needed time.

"It'll be ok, Alex," Kara suddenly said and her voice was full of sympathy which surprised Lee and made him smile. Tough to the bone Starbuck had let her guard down and felt for the crying girl, he half sister.

Alex looked up to her, her eyes filled with tears. "It's easy for you to say that," she answered bitterly. "But Lilli was all I had, all that was left of my so-called family. Now I'm all alone. I have no one!"

"You're not alone," Kara whispered and touched her arm that was still wrapped around Lee's hips. She was a bit helpless because of her own inability to wear emotions to the outside but she had decided to not longer hate that girl, she now was her whole family somehow, even though she didn't like that idea very much.

"She wasn't even my sister, she was just…a girl they had stolen, but she was a baby girl when she came to us, she never remembered her real family and saw me as her sister! I wanted so badly to take her back to her parents, but...I couldn't," Alex said and tried to stop the tears from floating because she wanted to be strong.

"So…we know that you disappeared years ago from Libra…where have you been? And what do you mean with 'they had stolen'? Who stole Lilli and how? Why," Lee asked and made her sit down again so she could calm down a bit.

"How do you know I disappeared," Alex asked sharply and stopped crying.

"Long story, just answer my questions," Lee told her and waited.

"When I was 11 years old, one day after my birthday, they came and took me away from my family. I had played in our garden, I didn't even see them coming. All I remember was them giving me an injection and when I woke up again I was on another planet of the colonies, on Gemenon to be more precisely. Callisto and Ben – the people who kidnapped me- told me, that I was their kid now and that I should forget about my real family. Thy already had a boy, his name was Nathan, he had been with them since he's been 1 year old so he didn't know anything else," she explained and stopped for a second.

"They cared for us and if you forget about the fact that I had actually been kidnapped and missed my family, I had a good life there. We went to school, we lived together like a family and I had a lot of friends there. Nevertheless the was always a kind of tension between me and them because I had been old when they had taken me and they knew that I had made some plans to escape. They knew I prayed to the gods every night that my mommy would come and take me back home. Unfortunately, no one ever came. Now I know that by the time the police had told my parents that I was dead, my mom was pregnant again. They just…forget about me. No one ever looked for me on another planet of the colonies!"

"From time to time, Ben took us into the cellar. No matter how hard I try to remember what he did to us down there, I can only remember some impressions, nothing real. I just know that it hurt sometimes…and that he did things I didn't like but it's very undefined in my mind. Sometimes I woke up in bed and was sick for weeks but they never told us they were the reasons for our strange diseases. They just would tell us that we had caught the flue from someone at school and that's it. One day, I was sick of it and just took off with Lilli after school, when both of them were working. We took a Raptor to the Raising Star that should take us to Libra where I wanted to visit my parents but while we were in space the Cylons came and destroyed the colonies. I was so frakking stunned because I finally had escaped and wanted to see my parents again and then I could just watch the whole planet going up in flames and dark clouds from their atomic bombs. That's the end of the story," she finished and took a deep breath. Never before she had told anyone about that.

"Wow," Kara said and scratched her arm. That was absolutely not what she had expected. "So, the things they did to you caused illness. But you can't remember anything from it," she stated and waited till Alex nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, like I told you. But there's one thing – Nathan died the same way Lilli did and I think it has something to do with what Ben did to us in the cellar. I don't think he raped us or something, it's been more of experiments I think. But of course, I'm not sure. I know that sometimes I had little stitches in my arms, from syringes maybe but Cally always told me it was from mosquitos – somehow it never itched."

Lee though for a moment, then he had an idea. "I want you to tell someone what Callisto and Ben look like so we can create phantom pictures of them!"

Alex shrugged. "What for? They're dead, Gemenon was destroyed," she reminded him. Lee nodded but told her: "It's not that we want to find them or something, but nevertheless I need pictures of them. We don't have to hurry, just take some time and maybe in a few days we can create them. We can…" he said but was interrupted when a nurse came in and asked them to leave the room so they could take Lilli's corpse to the morgue.

Lee wanted to show the phantom pictures to Sharon Valerii because in case Alex ad Lilli had been victims of Cylon experiments, she could tell them!

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Well, finally an update, sorry for the delay but I was on holiday and had no time! I hope you like it, I would be more than happy about some more reviews! 


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